Hum

1/5

What….the….FUCK!? That pretty much sums up this movie. Seriously, it was such a waste of time. No…that’s not quite it either. Yes, it was a waste of time…but not in the sense that it didn’t leave its mark, which could be described as a brisk drizzle of “WTF.” Is that the objective of art? I don’t want to call this art. I’m definitely going to be rambling because I’m kind of puzzled and stunned all at the same time. I mean…I’m used to the internet/history of man, which is far worse, so it wasn’t an eye-opening shock, but it just makes me want to ask all sorts of questions. Why was this movie made? What is the point of it? Who the fuck funded this? Is the book that it’s based on just as bad?

I originally stopped watching halfway out of boredom, and because I felt the film didn’t seem like it was going to be able to contribute much more. At that point, the movie was odd, but still within the bounds of “normal crazy.” You know, like those people you hear about in the news, or the people with interesting mental problems that you discuss with your psych friends. But the next day, I decided I’d finish it off.

And it just got more and more bizarre. I can’t even think of whom I would ever recommend this movie to. In fact, don’t watch this movie. Ever. I mean, there’s bad movies, then there’s twisted movies, then there’s pointlessly bizarre movies. It was the last of the three. And I’m not talking Saw. I mean…I haven’t seen Saw, but that somehow seems more normal from what I’ve heard. There are clear roles of “psycho” in Saw, but it’s also gratuitous enough where you can shrug it off as pure fiction. Ma Mère still tries to keep the characters and neurosis somewhat realistic, where you could almost believe that people like this are out there. Truly disturbing.

And no, if you’re asking, I’m not that naive. Yes, judging by the title, my worst case scenario was that this movie would be about a son who has unhealthy thoughts about his mom. Worst case scenario. Best case scenario, a boy being raised by his single parent mom. But I figured, even if it were that worst case scenario, that it would somehow redeem itself. A classy movie about incest. I jest. Bear with me. I recently watched The Piano Teacher, which was also kind of twisted, but it was a good character study of a totally psychologically fucked up woman. Like Ma Mere, The Piano Teacher also starred Isabelle Huppert, and she did a good job in it. I figured, at worst, if Ma Mere were indeed about a fucked up son, that it would go into how the characters deal with it and how they battle it.

Mais non. Instead of trying to normalize themselves, they seem to go further into the darkness. Why? I don’t know. It doesn’t make sense. I usually don’t write about what actually happens in a movie when I write reviews in order to avoid spoilers, but no one is going to give a fuck in this case. I’m sure of it. So it all culminates at the very end with the mom, who has willingly corrupted her son over the course of the movie, cutting her abdomen with an exacto knife. Why? Again, I don’t know. I tried to think of all possible symbolism and analysis, but I really couldn’t come up with anything. Caesarian? Not really, she cut off to the side, and it wasn’t a deep cut. Some possible attempt to emulate virginity? Then he started poking his finger in the wound, but not…like that. So then he starts whacking off, and at the peak of his orgasm, she stabs herself in the neck with the knife, killing herself.

Hence, the WTF.

I’ve tried reading the wiki to add some semblance of order to the chaos, but there is nothing. Looks like the movie is classified with “New French Extremity.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ma_mere

Anyway, I’m hoping to delete this from my mind, soonest, and play some happy music. Ahhh, some Vivaldi, some Nessun Dorma. That does the trick. Next time, definitely going to read reviews before renting. Katherine, I bet you’re glad we ended up watching Firefly instead.

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This entry was posted by Ron on Wednesday, September 24th, 2008 at 12:58 am and is filed under Moving Pictures, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.